Youth Services

Alycia Moore, club youth services director, outlined the various programs encompassed in the youth services directorate. Although Earlyact, Interact and Rotaract are not part of this club, we do support youth leadership activities and regularly send individuals to SLAPSHOT in Ancaster ON, RYLA in Fredonia NY and Adventures in Citizenship in Ottawa ON. The club hosted its first youth exchange student, Nico Papp in 2010-11. Nico is from Argentina. Our first outbound was Claire Harkness who went to Australia. The next year Lisa Kammemer from Austria was here and Emily Hall visited Denmark. Alycia's main focus was on youth exchange, hoping to get the members reengaged in hosting in the future. Alycia herself was a youth exchange student 10 years ago with her placement in Germany where she learned to speak German.

Host Bob Neibert spoke of his family's experiences with Nico and Marnee Maroes spoke of Lisa's stay with her. Ralph Montesanto who hosted Nico showed a slide presentation during fellowship and breakfast of all four youth exchange students. He then turned the computer and projector over to Nico who was Skyped into the meeting from his home in Cordoba Argentina. Nico answered a list of prepared questions ranging from who he is and when he was here, to non host members who took him to their cottage, the zoo, hockey games or golfing. He then outlined the highlights of the program for him. Nico also give his view of the type of student who should be considered for youth exchange. He suggested he or she should not be shy, should be comfortable when away from home and should not be on exchange if there are significant issues in their own home. To close the session, Ralph turned the mike over to club members who had a number of questions for Nico, ranging from his Canadian football skills to his dream to open a wing and 7-Up restaurant in Argentina. Skyping Nico live into the morning meeting was a first for the club and with a two hour time difference Nico did not have to get out of bed too early.